A Cork TD has sharply criticised the pace of the roll-out of a controversial Government redress scheme, warning that “time is running out” for survivors of mother and baby home institutions.
The scheme pays compensation to mothers who were forced to spend time in mother and baby institutions and to children who spent more than six months in such institutions.
The first payments were made last week to hundreds of survivors, after the scheme’s implementation was delayed a number of times.
The €800m redress scheme - the largest in the State’s history - came after a 2021 State apology for the suffering of women and girls incarcerated in mother and baby homes because they were pregnant outside marriage.
Some 34,000 people who were in the institutions are estimated to be eligible to qualify for redress, but a further 25,000 will not be eligible because they spent less than six months in the institutions.
By mid-July, some 4,375 applications for redress had been received and nearly 3,500 of these were considered completed and were being processed.
According to figures given to Independent TD Catherine Connolly last week by Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman, 508 awards have so far been accepted by applicants and 459 of those have already been paid, with an average payment of just under €15,500, while payments to date total €7.1 million.
Critised
However, the pace at which the scheme has been rolled out has been strongly criticised by Sinn Féin TD for Cork East Pat Buckley.
Mr Buckley told The Echo he had been “in constant contact with elderly survivors who have had no assistance from the Government” since the scheme was announced, with one aspect of the scheme, the proposed provision of enhanced medical cards to survivors, causing particular concern.
“These people are elderly and have medical needs, such as cataracts, and joint problems, and some are waiting for surgery, but those that I’ve been speaking to cannot access the services they need as they are surviving on their pensions only.
“One constituent explained to me that they would have to borrow money from the credit union, travel to Belfast for cataract treatment and pay for their accommodation themselves, and then wait for the HSE to reimburse possibly 90% of the cost of the procedure, while the individual must pay for the shortfall and their accommodation costs.” Mr Buckley said some survivors were dipping into their meagre savings – often put aside for funeral expenses – in an effort to pay for vital medical procedures.
“I have been raising the issue of an enhanced medical card repeatedly in the Dáil, and I and the survivors are still no closer to a satisfactory answer,” he said.
“We all know what an enhanced medical card will mean for these people, but what we also know that time is running out for these survivors.”
Mr Buckley said he was calling on the Government to use the upcoming Budget as an opportunity to “do the right thing” and expedite the rollout of enhanced medical cards and finalise compensation payments to survivors.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was asked for comment.